Mangle Sharing.

Well to think that my sister trip as nearly cancelled due to the weather forecasts…. We have had a bit of rain but that has been at night time, apart from that its been brilliant weather.

Pootling along nicely, this morning, we did pass a day boat of ladies of all ages singing at the tops of their voices Bohemian Rhapsody, they all had a glass in hand, big smiles, balloons and streamers as they passed 

by. 

We all joined in. 

The Farm Shop loomed into sight, I knew this as a passing boat had two crew both eating ice-cream tubs, they highly recommended the purchase of, so that was good enough for me.

This little beauty was parked up by the Farm Shop at Bridge 23.

We moored up and headed in.  They have created a paddock into a campsite now too.  The shop is well stocked with meat, veg, salad, bread and seven flavours of pretty gorgeous ice-cream.  

I chose Pistachio. 

Divine, but the other two refrained, I don’t know how, quite beyond me to refuse ice cream.

We decided on a circular walk to the village of Stoke Golding, it’s such a charming village with period houses alongside sympathetic new builds…..

Isn't that just fantastic to be sharing a mangle?  Almost a first laundrette.

I guess this was a non church Free Grammar...?

Now maybe this is true, however in the 18 months since we visited the Battlefields they seem to think it was somewhere else completely...

What is such a curious feature of this village is the church (The Church was selling jams too so we brought two jars)   or rather its proximity to two farms almost in the centre of the village, one a turkey farm and the other a dairy farm.

I think down our way in Sussex the chances are busybodies would complain then the farms would be sanctioned and have to change practices that have long existed…. Well maybe thats the case here, but I for one like the fact that this village has a church, school, post office two pubs and two working farms.

Talking of pubs, we went to one.  The George and Dragon, my two beer drinking companions sang very high praises of the beer too.  It was Church End Brewery.  So if you are passing GO THERE!

We walked back to the south of the village and moved the boat onwards….. actually only to the north of the village, there are some 48 hr moorings on the offside to the towpath here right next to the road and a lay-by handily filled with boaters and dog walkers cars.  We got in nicely.  

I made this, it went down very well with my sister who generally does not like sweet things.

White chocolate and ginger crunch, easy and calorie free, first tasted at Annie's Tearooms at Thrupp.

Only a few minutes later, a motorhome drew up, he had the passenger window open and his radio playing.  Now this normally goes off with the stopping of the engine, but not this time.  I was writing this in the cratch and the music was pretty audible as he was less than 10ft from me.  I waited patiently for him to with off the engine, he did however the music remained on.   I then noticed that he was sitting on his door step drinking beer.  Free country of course, but it told me he wasn’t driving off again tonight.  After a bit he got his little puppy out and walked it off to the nearby field,  leaving the music still playing pretty loudly. Ummmmm.

So we ignored it and had supper.  Later still he did turn it off and disappeared, I reckon to one of three good pubs nearby.  Good.

During the evening THIS HAPPENED!!!!!
BLOODY FARMERS

What's that down there....?

Oh my word, its getting nearer!!

Spreading right across the canal.

This was the residue of the Lime Spreading that was going on in high winds in the fields next to us.  Marvellous.

I was loosing my cool later waiting in vain for 3G to load these photos Reader, (They have caused me anguish I hope you like them, I nearly deleted them all) So me in the cratch in the dark, in the chilled air when he returned and you’ve guessed it, the music went on immediately.  Not great.  Luckily Reader it all ended happily as he went to bed before me and he did turn it finally off.  

Supper was Chicken Caesar Salad with no chips, however we had fresh anchovies, chargrilled artichokes and a whole bag of Kettle chips, a new flavour of Sea Salt and Rosemary as a starter, Oh boy those are good. 

Good God, did you see that....?

So a glorious blue sunny skies, we watered up, Melanie “Trainered-up” and we watched David negotiate the ‘U-Turn’ that is Hawksbury Junction, I had the camera ready waiting for the crunch but there were none.  

Let the marathon begin... well, amble in the warm sun.

Not many pretties around but this one is new on me.

Melanie adhered to her strict Keep Fit regime by route marching/jogging (I joined in too) for half an hour while WaL followed on.  Eventually we got back onboard and enjoyed the sun.  I am very conscious that the rest of the summer will slip away from us and in the blink of an eye and before you know it there will be christmas cards in the shops.  So I take every opportunity to enjoy it now.

It was nice to show our guest the local landmarks…..

This is actually a "Boat yard" Reader if you haven't been here before.

This boat is filled with precious belongings.

That thud you  heard was my sister's jaw hitting the deck.

All still going well here with no sign of any intervention from the local Environmental Health Agency. 

The 90 degree angled turn onto The Ashby Canal was not without its trials.  A boat coming towards us waved us forward he then proceeded to come forward into WaL’s required turning space making not one bump but two and a fair bit of swearing.  Well that was David’s story…. I have to defend his below par driving by reminding you Reader that last year he made the turn perfectly in one manoeuvre, but that was last year and not this.

Not one but two smackerooneys..... don't let him know I told you.

Still, we decided to leave him to his TMS (Test Match Special) and we girls went to the front and relaxed.

Nice.

We moored up just north of Hinckley, on a stretch of armco…..

“What are we stopping here?”  says my perplexed sister,

“Out here in the middle of nowhere?”

“With no pubs or anything?”

“Yes” says I, as we really like being in the middle of nowhere….

Very rich mushroom and stilton risotto for supper, we calmed her nerves with a bottle of rather a good red.

Gold fish down the loo

Well as is not an uncommon occurrence these days, within hours the weather forecast had changed and the day full of heavy rain, didn’t.

My sister Melanie arrived by train to Rugby, we collected her á pied and went straight back to the boat to get in the sun.  She obeyed the request to travel light, unlike my daughter one time who was coming to the boat after visiting friends in Cambridge… "What ever you do don’t bring a suitcase!" I sent via text, email, what’s app and voicemail.   

“Too late!” she said as she trundled her suitcase along the towpath, “I’d already left.”  Now guests bringing suitcases really are a pain in the neck or their cases are anyway, we tripped over the thing all week and we are a bigger boat.

Well the day panned out to be a lovely one and we sat in the sun on deck whilst David drove on.  

So we carried on northwards in the general direction of Hawksbury Junction my very very very favourite pub.  So a journey of contrasts, of wooded stretches, open farmland and grotty scrubland 

but just around the corner were all the boats that had passed us this morning and pulled into go shopping at Tesco, it was a right bun fight, boats moored up both sides, pretty narrow and boats coming towards us. 

We crept through, Melanie and I enjoying the sun.  I did notice that the lights in Newbold tunnel are not working at all now, such a pity I feel, I really liked them.

I don’t know what other people are thinking at the moment as the lack of any 3G here is irritating, but the canals seem very quiet and this proved to be the case as we approached Hawksbury, instead of moored boats all along the approach, we moored on the grassy bends only about five boats down from Sutton Stop, its always been rammed when we have come past previously.  

It was a lovely evening, we had the last outside table in the sun and then Morris Men arrived at 8pm, my favourite.

I might get this for our bathroom here....!

Gongoozelling is such fun, this hirer was fine, the previous private made a right hash of the turn and crashed sideways into the wall.

My favourite fertility rite

Boaty People are Lovely

So today we had to really move  further up the North Oxford Canal, grey and overcast it was so jackets were on and rain was expected.  A nice trip up to Hilmorton Locks, joining the second lock minutes after the first lock had been occupied by a set of grandparents with a pair of grandchildren aboard helping.  Smiley faces all around and another nice lady started filling my lock for me on one side, then as she arrived at the second of the three locks she opened the doors for David as I caught up…. Aren’t Boaters lovely people I say again?

So onward towards Rugby, and we moored up on a nice stretch of armco short of Rugby to play Supermarket Sweep at Tesco.  We went on bikes, two baskets and a rucksack and this is what we brought….

Two weeks worth of shopping, well maybe one week.

Even flowers arrived safely.

My sister is due to arrive tomorrow but the forecast is so bad that we may abandon plans as there is no point in her paying out a train fare to spend the time sitting in a boat reading…. Reassess in the morning.

Bikes Buzzards and drivel

Decisions decisions…. We couldn’t decide whether to sail off and cycle or cycle from here in Braunston and move the boat later.  In the end it was the former.  

Braunston was much much calmer than the weekend when with all the hire boats coming and going it had been non stop boats passing. Like Clapham Junction.

A whole bunch of CART volunteers sorting out the waist high thistles.  Good work men.

This unforgettable boat is now up for sale.

Leaving town, the ridged fields and iconic skyline.

 Off we went on a big trip.  It took well over thirty or forty minutes and we were there…. over looking lovely ridged meadows rolling down to the canal.

View out of my kitchen window, (See my gas hob there too?)

Now the ride that had been earmarked was one towards Napton, David had followed his nose about a month previously.  

A horrid non stop jolting all down the canal path to the right bridge then thank goodness onto the road and a nice pretty much car free ride to Willoughby then onto towards Priors Hardwick, the view was a great panorama of Napton-on-the-hill, the canal, the narrowboats, locks, buffalo and beyond.

No camera that day this this is the best my old iPhone could do.

Sitting in the sun on top of the hill we laid in the sun and watched a family of Common Buzzards on the wind soaring and swooping with the three youngsters calling out to mum and dad.  Lovely.

On  the return trip we went off course to look for Willoughby Cricket Club, its a small village that have rebuilt a great pavilion funding it all themselves which is a marvellous achievement.  We chatted to the Treasurer who had been there for 50 years and he had been invited to a celebratory dinner at Edgebaston.  
Ian Bell is from the next village too.

To get home again we had to do the ghastly mile over tree roots and rocks so the chairs out straight out in the sun. 

Evening view, hard to beat me thinks.

I am delighted to say this afternoon I finished that awful book.  Written by Santa Montefiore 'The house by the sea', unmitigated drivel.  

WaL 

I love this boating malarky.

Sunny Sunday, maybe the last one for a while…

This is retrospectively written as Braunston, for us, is a modern communications “Blackhole”.

An arrangement had been made to show George and Sue, our hosts from last evening WaL this morning, they duly arrived nice and early for coffee leaving plenty of time for David to take my cycling to a viewpoint he had enjoyed about a month previously.  George and Sue are such good company that the time flew past and suddenly it was gone 11am, my mother always says “Eleven O’Clock and not a whore in the house dressed”. 

Farewells to George and Sue and we hope to see them in the near future as they live close to where we are going.

Bikes out, hats on, lets go.  No lets just stop while the tyre need pumping up again….   BMW comes to mind. 

The Braunston Tunnel is somewhere under there

Braunston looking lovely.

Eventually we found ourselves at The Rose at Willoughby, where David had the thickest juiciest and tender roast beef, and I had the freshest cod and chips, well Reader can you smell it…?  Don’t hesitate people, just go there!!

Later after a little bit more stuffing of scones cream and jam there was not much more activity going on.  I endeavoured to finish my book which was dreadful I don’t know why I carried on to page 384 without giving up.  

But reading in the last gasps of sunshine in the cratch, at Braunston is a great pleasure in life.  But choose a better better book.

Not sure I can name it with out it being sued for libel…?

On a Mission

An evening text was received with an invitation last night “Oh yes please” but it was a way away.  This called for urgent measures of the husband kind, that is to say a dawn departure.  Easy for him, leaving at 6am, in the event the excitement was too much and we left at 5:30am.  I use the term we loosely, but I played a smaller role, smaller but vital!!  David had brought us down to Crick, I was about awake and I knew the tunnel was fast approaching, I nipped through the boat to put the kettle on and came back to the bedroom to get dressed when there was a terrible desperate cry for help….! QUICK COME HERE NOW was the gist of it, I leapfrogged the bed and got out on deck, David had entered the tunnel and his glasses had completely steamed up, I didn’t quite know what to do first, take his glasses and wipe them or grab the wheel and drive while he did the glasses, in all the fun it ended up with him without hold of the wheel or glasses and somehow we didn’t crash…

Good thing too.  Crisis averted I went quickly down below again, it was chilly and I hadn’t a stitch on!!  

Nice run to Watford Locks, we waited for one boat to come up, then in we went.  The wait had given David a further opportunity to wash off the roof of the boat again after Crick tunnel which is always dripping. 

Oh good grief he is washing the boat again! This is the man who never in his life has washed the car.

A lady walked up the the Lock keeper to book in and said Oh I will help you down while I walk back down….!  Aren’t Boaters nice people?

The nice ladies that had helped me all the way down

After Watford Locks it was time to think about breakfast.  The previous afternoon I had made these….

As a consequence we didn’t eat intended dinner

Add caption

So our supper was postponed till now!!

Steak sandwiches 

So very painlessly through there and then onto Braunston Tunnel, 

Two out, three in.

where two boats were in front of us and two exited as we went in.  As we reached the top lock about 40 mins later there were masses of boats around going in both directions making life soooooo easy for all.  

For my non boaty friends this means that you can leave gates open for others coming in and we didn’t have to fill a single lock as others were coming towards you.

Down into town here, and jumped onto the first available space and as the heavens opened, the tonneau cover was clipped on and the hatches were well and truly battened down.

Later we met up with Joe & Lesley otherwise known as Mr & Mrs Yarwood.  This evening, and the reason for the night time start this morning is that a kind invitation for them to supper had been extended to us by the new Mr & Mrs Caxton, George and Sue and a lovely evening it was too.  Caxton is a recent purchase for them and for those who don’t know, Joe and Lesley were the first owners.  The boat looked so lovely tonight and George and Sue are thrilled with her, easy to see why.
We finally said goodnight to our hosts and carefully, carefully tackled the very narrow staging back to dry land in the marina, as usual we didn't take our torches, even though with every visit to the chandlers here at Braunston I buy another one.  David swears he can see in the dark after a lifetime of getting cows in to milk in the dark, but......
Lovely evening George and Sue, thank you.